Category Archives: Competitions

ECCG Awards Night 2014

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Awards night. 103-2

John Finn ARPS with ECCG Photographer of the Year 2014, Karen Fleming

ECCG members and their families and friends gathered in The Midleton Park Hotel on Friday 21/11/14 for the annual awards night. With competitions throughout the year feeding into the prestigious Photographer of the Year award, the build up to this night was palpable in recent weeks.

Photographer of the Year was not the only award on offer on the night however, as best in Grades A, B and C, best in Category, best Panel, best New Photographer and Club Person of the Year also had to be revealed.

Judging was carried out by Mr. John Finn, ARPS, Travel and Portrait photographer, Mr. Rowan Thornhill and pictures editor of The Evening Echo, Mr. Brian Lougheed.

Following a fine meal expertly provided by the staff of Midleton Park Hotel, the formal proceedings were opened by secretary, Anthony O’Connor and, following short speeches by chairman, Denis Barry and special guest, Mr. John Finn ARPS, treasurer, Kevin Day and PRO, Mervyn Daly announced the prize winners which went as follows:

Panels
Panel 1st - Adrian Newcombe
First: Adrian Newcombe

Panel 2nd - Anthony OConnor
Second: Anthony O’Connor

Panel 3rd - John Tait
Third: John Tait

Categories
Best Landscape - Denis Barry
Best Landscape: Denis Barry

Best Seascape - Denis Barry
Best Seascape: Denis Barry

Best Portrait - Fergus Kenneally
Best Portrait: Fergus Kenneally

Best Nature - John Tait
Best Nature: John Tait

Joint Best Sport - Denis OFlynn
Best Sport (joint): Denis O’Flynn

Joint Best Sport - Jim ONeill
Best Sport (joint): Jim O’Neill

Best Macro - Karen Fleming
Best Macro: Karen Fleming

Best Archictecture - Anthony OConnor
Best Architecture: Anthony O’Connor

Best Travel - Anthony OConnor
Best Travel: Anthony O’Connor

Best Black & White - Lorna ODwyer
Best Black and White: Lorna O’Dwyer

Best HDR - Anthony OConnor
Best HDR (High Dynamic Range): Anthony O’Connor

Best Reportage_Documentary - Denis Barry
Best Reportage/Documentary: Denis Barry

Best Open Category - Adrian Newcombe
Best Open: Adrian Newcombe

Awards Night 2014-29

Best in Category Winners: l-r: Denis O’Flynn – Sport, Denis Barry – Landscape, Seascape, Reportage/Documentary, John Tait – Nature, John Finn – Competition Judge, Anthony O’Connor – Architecture, Travel, HDR, Fergus Kenneally – Portrait, Karen Fleming – Macro, Lorna O’Dwyer – Black and White, Adrian Newcombe – Open, Jim O’Neill – Sport

Grades

Grade A

Grade B

Grade C

Best New Member of the Year: Trevor O’Connell

Best Club Person of the Year: Susan Meaney

Photographer of the Year (POTY)
First: Karen Fleming
Second: Finbarr O’Shea
Third: Denis Barry

Photographer of the Year – Winning Portfolio – Karen Fleming

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Congratulations to all award recipients and especially, Karen Fleming, Photographer of the Year, 2014. Well done too to everyone else who entered as a point or two given in another direction would have seen some of these in the prizes, such was the closeness of the final scores.

A big thank you goes to the three judges who did a stellar job. While the important task of awarding points was their main function, their feedback is equally important as it is vital that everyone gets an objective assessment of their work which can be factored into the fine tuning for the future.

Finally, thanks to our sponsors (click on the links to visit their websites) for the night and also to The Midleton Park Hotel for providing a beautiful meal and surroundings for a memorable night.

Mouse over the image below to activate the slideshow. Enjoy!

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All images from the Awards night by Finbarr O’Shea and Fidelma Read.

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Platform 3                    Barkers               O’Leary’s                     Art and Frame

 

Winner Alright! Photowalk Competition Winner Selected

East Cork Camera Group participated for the first time this year in the 7th annual Scott Kelby Annual Photowalk on Saturday 11/10/2014. All those who participated were eligible to submit one image to the local competition for a one-year’s subscription to ‘KelbyOne‘ online training service, for everything photography and beyond, worth $250. The winner would also be automatically entered into the worldwide competition for some fantastic prizes.

The deadline for submissions was 27/10/14 and once the closing date had passed it was time to select the winner which was not an easy task. Eventually, however, one was separated from the rest so congratulations, Finbarr O’Shea who submitted the ‘fishy’ entry below!

Finbarr OShea-5

Well done to all those who joined us on the day, commiserations to the competition runners up and, once more, well done Finbarr and the best of luck in the worldwide competition.

See the Midleton Photowalk Flickr Gallery here

See the Worldwide Photowalk Flickr Gallery here

 

How I Took That Shot – Karen Fleming

Karen Fleming-1

Taking first place in Group A for the fourth time on the trot this year, Karen Fleming chose a portrait of her son Aaron with his canine friend, Rosie. Here’s how she made the image:

Just before we broke from the club meetings for the summer we were given our final theme for our internal competition for the club year which was ‘Emotion’. We had a bit more time to capture our image this time round due to the summer break which was great because I had no idea what to do for it. As the summer ticked by I had a couple of ideas in mind but I still hadn’t shot anything. Then before I knew it the reminder for submission came in and I still didn’t have my image captured.

I was contemplating not entering an image for the competition ’till an idea was suggested to me. The day before submission I shot the idea and, though I got an image, I decided to shoot again just hours before the submission deadline. I borrowed my mother’s West Highland terrier puppy, Rosie, who my son Aaron is crazy about. I got a black sheet and hung it in the bay window in my living room. I set up two studio lights, one with a softbox and one we with a snoot. I got Aaron to play with Rosie and captured the shot.

Canon 5d
24-105 mm lens
ISO 400
f20 1/160 sec

Post production was basic levels and curves then converted to monochrome.

 

How I Took That Shot – Finbarr O’Shea

Coming into the ‘Emotion’ competition, Finbarr O’Shea had a first and two second placings in Grade B already under his belt this year. When the numbers were crunched in the ‘Emotion’ competition he came out on top again with the image below. This is his account of how the image came to be:

Finbarr OShea-7

My shot for the recent group competition “Emotion” was a portrait of my granddaughter Mikaela. The shot came about when my son Mark and Mikaela were reacting with one another in the kitchen.

I thought a square crop suited this picture best.

The camera settings for the shot were:

f5.6 1/60 sec 400 ISO, with speedlight flash, focal length 70mm.

– Finbarr

 

How I Took That Shot – Trevor O’Connell

Trevor O’Connell took his second first place of the year in Grade C in the recent Group ‘Emotion’ Competition with the image below. Here’s how he did it:

Trevor OConnell-1

This shot was a selfie!

Camera settings were –
Canon EOS 6d / 24 – 70mm lens @ 70mm
ISO 800
f/11
1/250 sec

For the shot, I was looking up at the sun and squinting. The camera was on a tripod with a shutter release cable attached.

In Photoshop, I cropped it a little and using layers I added the dark border, drained the colour except for the blue and sharpened the eye detail.

The tears were painted in using different layers with layer effects like drop shadow to and gradients to create the water drop effect. The reflection in the eyes is a seperate image of my daughter masked out so as most of it only appears in the pupil.

The rain streaks were applied using a rain brush i downloaded for free from the internet.

It was a bit of fun really and a nice way to pass an evening!!!!

– Trevor